Impact of Misdiagnosis in Case-Control Studies of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

ABSTRACT: Misdiagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) can occur when different case definitions are used by clinicians (relative misdiagnosis) or when failing the genuine diagnosis of another disease (misdiagnosis in a strict sense). This problem translates to a recurrent difficulty in reproducing research findings. To tackle this problem, we simulated data from case-control studies under misdiagnosis in a strict sense. We then estimated the power to detect a genuine association between a potential causal factor and ME/CFS. A minimum power of 80% was obtained for studies with more than 500 individuals per study group. When the simulation study was extended to the situation where the potential causal factor could not be determined perfectly (e.g., seropositive/seronega

SUBMITTER: Malato J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9914258 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature